Industrie 4.0

Industry 4.0

Welcome back to our blog! We have been dedicated to creating bite-sized posts, that you should go check out on our LinkedIn-page for the last couple of weeks.

Nonetheless, we are back with a very relevant article about the fourth industrial revolution: the Industry 4.0

Let’s start!

If you have ever heard from digitization, you have probably encountered the term “Industry 4.0” too. But, what does Industry 4.0 really mean? Are these things the same and could you use them interchangeably?
The definition of Industry 4.0 is indeed a digitized production. There are two key elements to this topic.

The first one are the so called networked-systems, these allow the individual components of a production to exchange data independently and react to each other flexibly and intelligently.

The second key element is self-control. This refers to the ability that the machines have to evaluate and independently react to the collected information, eliminating the need for human input. A process that does not count with self-control is referred to as central administration. This requires workers to evaluate information and make adjustments for the process to move forward.

A self-controlled production process demands the integration of all suppliers and customers as well as machines and products equipped with sensors. This makes it possible to automatically reorder parts, and for the production to react flexibly to changing customer requests. Imagine that a customer decides at the last minute to change the interior of his car. A factory that counts with a self-controlling production process would receive this information and plan a new route automatically to fulfill the new requirements. Another must have of Industry 4.0 is a good Internet-connection, since machines need to be able to exchange large volumes of data really fast, to react at an equally high speed. These processes normally rely on 5G technology. But what is the point of it all?

Today's consumers demand more and more individualization of their products, which only intelligent production can possibly deliver. The evaluation and reaction times required are way out of our human reach. Luckily, the immense amount of data available allows us to take advantage of tools like artificial intelligence, which is able to make decisions in a fraction of a second. Industry 4.0 is changing our entire working world, having positive impacts on more than just the employees' workload. Stay tuned for future articles where we will be dealing with this topic and more.

Until the next time,
your Statistance- team.